One Enchantment from Magic: The Gathering’s Hobbit set is currently fetching $530. Not Smaug. Not the One Ring. A card whose whole job is caring about the second card you draw in a turn.
Universes Beyond has been a running brawl among MTG players since the moment it was revealed, but a trip back to Middle-earth got even the doubters to sit up. The Commander Decks are still nowhere to be seen. What has arrived is a set stacked with genuinely great art and a handful of cards worth chasing.
Two things to flag before the money talk. These figures come from TCGplayer, and the One Ring still has no number attached to it. Pre-release pricing is also notoriously unstable, so treat all of this as a moving target.
That said, if you’re ripping packs over launch weekend, here’s what you’re hoping to hit.
The cheap end starts at $160
Opening the list at $160 is the Queen of Dale, who lets you recruit any time your opponents cast noncreature spells.
Recruiting means you draw a card and discard one, and discarding a nonland card earns you a 1/1 white Human Soldier token. For two mana, triggering off every noncreature spell your opponents put down, that fills up a board and a graveyard in a hurry.
Thranduil, the Elvenking is the first book cover treatment in the set, with plenty more on the way. He’s a 5/6 carrying all activated abilities of Elf cards in your graveyard.
He also draws and discards whenever another legendary Elf enters, which is precisely what typal decks are after. Green and blue have no shortage of Elves to feed him. He runs around $170.
Dwarves, dragons and free equipment
Thorin, Mountain-King, another book cover, attaches equipment to one of your creatures at no cost.
Whenever one or more pieces of equipment become attached this way, that creature deals damage equal to its power to up to one target creature. A 3/4 with Trample, he sells for roughly $195.
The borderless treatment of Smaug the Magnificent is among the best-looking cards in the whole set, and it’s fetching about $200.
This version doesn’t spell it out, but the card deals damage equal to the number of Treasures you control to any target, creature or player. You also pick up a Treasure token at the beginning of your upkeep. The body is a 4/3 with flying and haste.
Craving more Smaug? Functionally identical to the printing above, this one depicts the dragon asleep on his hoard.
Same card, different nap. It’s going for around $225.
The burglar and the wizard
Bilbo, Thief in the Night finally arrives as a 2/2 that reduces the cost of spells cast from anywhere other than your hand. He repeats the trick when he attacks, a tidy bit of design for a character whose entire role is sneaking around.
This printing sits at roughly $240.
Gandalf, Goblins’ Bane was never going to come cheap, and this version earns the tag. He can be cast as a 2/3 Avatar Wizard that gains +1/+1 with noncreature spells and pings opponents for damage, or he can be played as a Sorcery.
Flameshape exiles two cards from your library and lets you play them as long as you control a Wizard. The book cover version is closing in on $300.
The Arkenstone costs more than the dragon guarding it
Long before the One Ring, there was the Arkenstone. This Legendary Artifact pumps your creatures and hands you card draw at end of turn.
It can be played as a Sorcery as well, searching out a legendary creature card and putting it into your hand. That one goes for $305.
Fancy a different treatment? You’ll pay for the privilege — this one is $400.
The $530 card nobody saw coming
Gleaming Splendor has climbed well clear of the $500 mark. It’s an Enchantment that hands you Treasure Tokens as players draw their second card on a turn.
The artwork broadcasts the plan: slot it alongside Smaug, the Magnificent in red and white and let the Treasures stack up. You can also pay additional mana to force other players to draw a card, which is a polite way of describing what comes next.
It’s $530 as of right now. Ask again on Monday.